Woz wilts in Sydney heat as Strycova prevails

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Caroline Wozniacki's eighth attempt at reaching the Sydney International semi-finals wilted in the stifling Australian heat on Wednesday with the former world number one going down to Barbora Strycova in a three-set slugfest. Strycova prevailed 7-5 6-7(6) 6-4 over her 10th seeded Danish opponent in a three-hour and 20 minute marathon played out in temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius at the Ken Rosewall Arena. The 30-year-old Czech next meets second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Chinese qualifier Duan Yingying 6-3 6-2 in the last quarter-final of the day at the Australian Open warmup event. Wozniacki has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals in Sydney and she appeared to be heading for a straight-sets defeat when Strycova claimed the opener and raced to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker of the next. Wozniacki, however, won seven of the next eight points to force a decider but the unseeded Strycova reeled off the last three games to seal victory under the scorching sun. "You just try and think like you're on a beach drinking pina coladas," Wozniacki joked. "That's basically your train of thought. You know that it's the same for both players, so I was just trying to mentally just try and keep cool. But it was really, really hot out there. "On the positive side of things, I can eat whatever I want now because I have burned a lot of calories today," she said. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and British number one Johanna Konta kept it simple in their quarter-finals to set up a last four showdown after straight-set victories. Sydney-born Konta, the sixth seed, won 6-3 7-5 against Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina, who had stunned world number one Angelique Kerber in the second round. Former Wimbledon finalist Bouchard beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-3 to continue her good early season form after a dismal couple of years following her breakthrough campaign in 2014. "I don't want to get too happy after a win or too sad after a loss, so, for me, it's just a good step in the right direction," the Canadian world number 49 said. "I know there is a long way to go to achieve what I want. "To match up against solid players like I have this week, it's a very tough tournament here. So I'm proud of that, for sure." (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by John O'Brien)